Self-knowledge Beyond the Mind

by Jayaram V

What are you? Is your notion of self real? How does it come into
existence? Is it the sum total of your experiences and awareness?
Or is it a mere notion sustained by a few persistent memories, attachments
and desires? Are you the sum total of a few selected thoughts and
memories or all thoughts and memories? Are you sustained by a few
aspects of your past or all your past? Do you come into existence
by the association of these thought and memories, or do you exist
without them? If you are a selection of thoughts and memories, what
happens to you when you enter into deep sleep? Do you still exist
then?

Such were the questions the Upanishadic seers explored in ancient
India several thousands of years ago to know the secrets of existence.
In doing so they followed a very unique method to minimize the interference
of the mind and transcend its limitations. They silenced their minds
and allowed the higher knowledge to manifest itself in their consciousness.
You can do it even today. There are two types of knowing: knowing
by knowing and knowing without knowing. In the former there is desire,
effort and egoism, in the latter there is renunciation of effort
and surrender to silence. Higher knowledge arises from the latter.
This affirmed in the Kena Upanishad, which suggests that in knowing
Brahman there is no knowing and in not knowing Brahman there is
true knowing.

The ancient seers believed that the deepest mysteries of our
existence were hidden in deep sleep where neither the mind, nor
the senses, nor the dreams can reach? They tried to enter into this
state through silence, by withdrawing their minds and senses and
practicing meditation and austerities.

Yoga was born this way. The purpose of yoga is to enter into
deep silence and simulate deep sleep to experience stillness in
the absence of mind and modifications. Anyone who has doubts as
to the nature and origin of Yoga should pay attention to this very
ancient concept of Hinduism. Knowledge comes through silence and
silence is best achieved when you practice yoga. The roots of yoga
are deeply embedded in ascetic traditions of Hinduism. Yoga was
not a religion. It was a method which emerged from the same beliefs
and practices that gave birth to the Upanishadic philosophy and
countless ascetic traditions of Hinduism.

Yoga became central to Hindu ascetic movements because its methods
and techniques offered the best and the most effective means to
silence the mind. Even today, there is no better system than yoga
to control your mind and stabilize it. Austerities (tapas), meditation
(dhyana) and other practices of yoga enabled the seers of ancient
India to enter into deeper states of consciousness and witness themselves
in subtle states without the familiar disturbances caused by Nature.
The logic they followed was simple. If you wanted to know truths
that existed beyond the mind, you should silence the mind and prevent
its interference. The Buddha also entered into the silence of his
mind, but there saw nothing but an absence of desire and the becoming.
Hence, he acknowledged the silencing of desires, but remained skeptical
about the existence of an eternal and immutable Self.

The Upanishadic seers who also entered into a similar state of
consciousness saw differently. They not only saw the absence of
desires and becoming but also an eternal and immutable Self hidden
in that silent consciousness, acting as the supporter and enjoyer
of all the functions of the mind and body. Hence they declared that
man was made in the image of a Cosmic Person, the Creator Himself.

Each and everyone of us has an opportunity to practice yoga and
enter into these states to see for ourselves what is hidden in each
of us, where there is anything beyond this flux which we call as
our consciousness or awareness. Mere intellectual knowledge does
not help us to remain awake in deep sleep. But through yoga, we
can learn to be observant and mindful when the mind and body are
asleep. Only then we can realize the truth and ascertain whether
the Buddha was right or the seers of the Upanishads.

When you reach that state, you will realize that the notion of
self created by your mind is not your real Self but a superficial
individuality sustained by desires and attachments. There is a far
deeper identity or individuality that is not of this world and not
created by thoughts or desires. That is the real Self. Hence the
saying, when the world is asleep, the seer is awake and when the
world is awake, the seer is asleep.

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